Standard & Poor's declares Venezuela in partial default

Venezuela's debt crunch comes as no surprise, as the government cuts back on imports to service its debt, leaving the population struggling with shortages of food and medicine. The country agreed on terms with Russian Federation for restructuring about $3 billion debt, but it still owes more than $50 billion on bonds held by other creditors.

S&P says Venezuela is also overdue on four other bond payments worth a total of $420m but that the grace period has not yet expired on those payments. His appointment as negotiator by president Nicolas Maduro was perhaps an attempt to blame the U.S. for the default and boost local popularity, according to Ray Zucaro of RVX Asset Management, which invests in Venezuelan debt, on Bloomberg Television. It lasted about 30 minutes, and vice president Tareck El Aissami, Venezuela's debt negotiator, mainly used the meeting as a chance to complain about Donald Trump.

"They didn't give any concrete details on their plans, on what they hope to get", Geronimo Mansutti, from the Rendivalores brokerage, told AFP.

"We have lowered two issue ratings to "D" (default), and we lowered the long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating to "SD" (selective default)", the agency said.

The ratings agency said the South American nation had failed to make $200m (£153m) in repayments on its foreign debt.

"If any potential restructuring operation is completed, we would lower all of our foreign currency ratings on Venezuela to default and subsequently raise them to the "CCC" or "B" category".

"We also believe the Venezuelan government and people have the ability to handle the debt issue of their country", Geng said.

"We rate this meeting, in which Venezuelan debt holders from Venezuela, the United States, Panama, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Japan and Germany participated, as highly positive and very auspicious", the statement continued.

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